FEBRUARY 2018 - AudioFile
What’s the audiobook equivalent of a page-turner? That’s what narrator Tavia Gilbert delivers in this mystery, in which two girls disappear from a strip mall parking lot. The desperate search for them brings together Max Caplan, a former police detective, now a P.I, and prickly Alice Vega, a bounty hunter who has earned a reputation for finding missing children. They follow leads that go nowhere and then connect the disappearance to other unsolved missing children cases in small-town Pennsylvania. Gilbert demonstrates her skill in voicing men, women and children of widely different backgrounds and is especially effective in expressing the pain of the tortured mothers of the missing girls. Listeners will find it hard to put down their earphones. E.Q. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 10/16/2017
Best known as a YA author, Luna (Crooked) ventures into adult thriller territory with a real nail-biter. Single mother Jamie Brandt parks in a shopping center in Denville, Pa., leaving her two daughters—10-year-old Kylie and eight-year-old Bailey—in the car while she goes into a Kmart to buy a birthday present. When she returns to the car, the children have disappeared. The devastated Jamie’s take-charge aunt, Maggie Shambley, asks California bounty hunter Alice Vega to locate the girls. The complicated, blunt-talking Alice, who may be on the autism spectrum, has an uncanny knack for finding people. When the Denville police chief rejects Alice’s help, despite being besieged by budget cuts, low morale, and a rising oxycodone and meth epidemic, she teams up with Max Caplan, a disgraced former cop turned PI who knows the local area. Luna nicely charts how the aloof Alice comes to embrace a personal relationship. The brisk plot combines psychological suspense with solid action, while providing a realistic look at a family under siege, as it builds to a shocking finale. Agent: Mark Falkin, Falkin Literary. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
"Sensational...One of the book’s great pleasures is seeing Caplan and Vega’s initially testy entanglement develop into a true partnership. But there are many other aspects in Ms. Luna’s story to savor as well: a host of sharply sketched characters, from spaced-out dopers to distraught parents and grandparents; action sequences startling in their sudden violence; and quick psychological revelations that pierce the heart."
—Wall Street Journal
“Opening this book is like arming a bomb—the suspense is relentless and the payoff is spectacular. Lead character Alice Vega is sensational—I want to see lots more of her.”
—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Line
"A real nail-biter...The brisk plot combines psychological suspense with solid action, while providing a realistic look at a family under siege, as it builds to a shocking finale."
—Publishers Weekly (starred)
"An outstanding neo-noir, introducing enigmatic bounty hunter Alice Vega, a perfect female incarnation of Jack Reacher...Vega springs to life in the hands of this immensely talented writer...This is a must-read for fans of strong female protagonists"
—Booklist (starred)
“Ripe for optioning…a winter title to watch.”
—Hollywood Reporter
"From its haunting opening to the pulse-pounding final sequences, Two Girls Down delivers a gripping read. Alice Vega and Max Caplan are characters I'd follow anywhere, and Louisa Luna is a writer to watch. Highly recommended."
—Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Wish Me Dead
“This is such a terrific read. High stakes, relationship-driven, perfectly paced. Two Girls Down has something else worth noting: three dimensional female characters. Alice Vega could give Jack Reacher a run for his money. Maybe Louisa Luna should write all the thrillers.”
—Chelsea Cain, New York Times bestselling author of Heartsick
“Louisa Luna is an incredibly talented writer with a bewitching gift for storytelling, and Two Girls Down fairly crackles with energy and suspense from the first page to the last. I can't ever recall a time before now that I lost sleep as a result of reading a crime thriller. This one, I just could not put down.”
—Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the Time & The Heavenly Table
"To the pantheon of unforgettable noir detectives, add Louisa Luna's bounty hunter Alice Vega and her partner, PI Max Caplan, one of the best and most original duos to grace crime fiction in many years. Two Girls Down is a breathlessly gripping journey into the dark heart of America: I couldn't put it down."
—Elizabeth Hand, author of Generation Loss and Hard Light
“Louisa Luna has written a knockout, read-it-in-one-sitting novel with Two Girls Down. Gripping, emotional, and tautly written, with a wonderful cast of memorable characters.”
—Jeff Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Adrenaline
Library Journal
10/01/2017
California bounty hunter Alice Vega, who has a reputation for finding missing children, teams with disgraced detective-turned-private investigator Max Caplan to find two vanished girls, sisters Kylie and Bailey Brandt, who were abducted from a mall parking lot in a small rundown Pennsylvania town. With few witnesses and even fewer consistent stories, and little help from a local police force overwhelmed by budget cuts and a growing narcotics epidemic, Vega and Caplan track down every bit of evidence and interview many suspects in their determination to locate the girls. The slow pacing is deliberate, adding to the growing suspense, as the story line ultimately builds to a surprising conclusion. The omniscient third-person narrative allows a look into the main protagonists' thoughts and feelings, but readers should pay attention to the many supporting and minor characters as well, as the roles they play add to the intensity. VERDICT In her adult fiction debut, YA author Luna (Brave New Girl; Crooked) offers a fresh take on the typical procedural drama by introducing flawed investigators who work independently of traditional law enforcement. Readers who loved Rene Denfeld's The Child Finder might enjoy this gritty take.—Natalie Browning, Longwood Univ. Lib., Farmville, VA
FEBRUARY 2018 - AudioFile
What’s the audiobook equivalent of a page-turner? That’s what narrator Tavia Gilbert delivers in this mystery, in which two girls disappear from a strip mall parking lot. The desperate search for them brings together Max Caplan, a former police detective, now a P.I, and prickly Alice Vega, a bounty hunter who has earned a reputation for finding missing children. They follow leads that go nowhere and then connect the disappearance to other unsolved missing children cases in small-town Pennsylvania. Gilbert demonstrates her skill in voicing men, women and children of widely different backgrounds and is especially effective in expressing the pain of the tortured mothers of the missing girls. Listeners will find it hard to put down their earphones. E.Q. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2017-10-02
A young female bounty hunter partners with a disgraced former cop to find a pair of missing girls.Single mother Jamie Brandt is late delivering her daughters to a birthday party, so she leaves 10-year-old Kylie and 8-year-old Bailey in the car while she runs into Kmart to buy a present. When she returns, the sisters are gone. Forty-eight hours pass without any leads, so Jamie's wealthy aunt hires renowned California bounty hunter Alice Vega to assist with the search. Vega hops the next plane to Denville, Pennsylvania, only to be frostily received by local law enforcement. Enter Max "Cap" Caplan, a private investigator who was forced to resign from the Denville PD three years prior but still has friends on the force. Vega agrees to share her fee with Cap if he'll call in some favors, and together they launch an investigation that shines a light on the darkest corners of rural Pennsylvania. Luna (Serious as a Heart Attack, 2005, etc.) excels at creating drama and sustaining tension, but her story relies too heavily on coincidence to fully satisfy, and the final plot twist goes unearned. Cap is an engaging and realistically flawed character, but the same can't be said for Vega, who is almost comically hard-bitten. The chapters told from her perspective are overwrought, and the attraction between her and Cap feels manufactured.What starts as a harrowing children-in-peril tale falls prey to cliché and melodrama.
